NFL Week 14: Shaking things up at the top 

Week 13 is in the books. We thought we were going to get a game of the year in Philadelphia but that was far from the case — see below. All in all, it was a light week as more quarterbacks got hurt, revealing glaring depth, both positively and negatively. The Eagles' loss really opens things up in the NFC and the AFC was already there. It is going to get pretty wild down the stretch.

Some observations from Week 13. 

Yes, San Francisco Is That Good

The number was just -3 on the road for San Francisco, but the mere fact that the 49ers were favored said a lot about them. At their best, they can pummel teams offensively and defensively and that is what we saw on Sunday afternoon. Health is a factor of course, but this team is dominating nearly everyone when they are at full strength. Only one of their nine wins has been as close as seven points. 

Betting Takeaway ... this team has the highest ceiling in the league right now. Their futures prices are only going to get more expensive.

Yes, Philadelphia Is Not

Even before losing on Sunday, the Eagles have been getting by for weeks. They are 24th in points allowed and have really struggled to stop the pass. That is not just because they have been winning either as they have been forced to come back multiple times. Quarterback Jalen Hurts is having a good season, but at the same time, he has already thrown for more interceptions than he did last year. He might score more TDs than a year ago but a lot of those would have just gone to a running back anyway. 

Betting Takeaway ... I feel like this is just proof that you have to look under the numbers or eventually you get burned (and I was on Philly last week too). 

Don't Need to Score to Cover

Last week, we had another group of very low-scoring games and in both cases the road favorite covered. I am referring to the Chargers' 6-0 win at New England and Atlanta's 13-8 win over the Jets. That is not even 20 points combined for those winning teams but they both beat the number. Things are going to get worse not better offensively too as even more quarterbacks went down last week and Zach Wilson might be getting another shot with New York. 

Betting takeaway ... Backing bad teams is always a little cringy, but the number you can count on this season is very small.

Ugh on Quarterbacks

We may have lost another one, at least for a little while, with Trevor Lawrence exiting the game on Monday night. As the season has progressed, there are fewer and fewer teams that have a reliable player at the most important position. That is just one of many reasons I am not on fire every time someone wants to vilify Josh Allen for the Bills' struggles. Who else do you want back there? By my count, maybe half the league has a healthy, viable quarterback right now. 

Betting takeaway ... When you know you have a QB advantage fire away but there are more and more games where both teams are tire fires. 

Kansas City Stuff 

The Chiefs lost on Sunday night, the first time they had done so in front of Taylor Swift (I need the page views). All season long this team has not been itself and they are now a full game behind Baltimore and Miami in the AFC. The defense has been very good but the Chiefs are scoring just 22 ppg and when you don't score you allow teams to hang around which is dangerous in a parity-driven league. 

Betting takeaway ... the Chiefs do not have a hard close to schedule, especially after Buffalo this week. Now might be futures time.